Ever Caught A Butterfly with Your Bare Hands?
Have you ever caught a butterfly with just your hands?
I did today and not just one but two of those Pieris rapae or the small cabbage white.
I have no idea how they got in there but the only reason I could think of was - they maybe were doing their courtship flight and accidentally went in the strawberry greenhouse.
It's been scorching hot for days and the strawberry leaves were wilted so I gave them all a drink. That's when I saw those two flying in panic ... back and forth the top of the greenhouse. I've rescued other flying insect from in there several times - bees, bumblebees, mason bees and several butterflies. I think most flying insect gets trapped in there because they have a tendency to keep flying upward so they never found the way out. A few have managed to find the door but these two cabbage butterflies were really flying frantic so I had to help.
I noticed that the male nips on a strawberry flower next to the baby celery plant every now and then so I waited for him to do so.
Of course, I took a pic of him doing that first.
Then, I used my fingers to hold his fragile wings. Butterflies are too soft and you have to be very gentle otherwise you'll get them smashed with just your fingers. I had to clip his wings between my fingers otherwise he'd flap it and I could get wing dusts on my eyes. A great lot of butterfly's wings dust could actually temporarily blind you.
I let him go and off he went high in the sky.
Then I went back for the female and found out I was too late. She already got trapped on the spider web in one of the 4 corners of the greenhouse and her left hind wing was already torn.
It was easy picking her out of the spiderweb which I soon destroyed and had the huge spider thrown in one of the conifers across from the greenhouse. She - on the other hand just played dead.
Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you.
Curious, I checked and carefully removed the rest of the web on her wings. Then I took pics of that lil' gal.
She just stared at me ...
Worried it's stressing her out already, I took her out of the greenhouse, and opened my fingers to release her. She didn't budge. Instead, she just sat there for more than 20 seconds. Yes, I counted 1 to 20 but she was still there.
I froze and turned my camera on again and managed to take this shot.
A few seconds more, her suitor appeared from the other side of the fence and finally she took off. Before that... I was thinking of putting her in a glass container in case she wouldn't budge... but off she flapped her wings, torn left hind wing and all and they both proceeded with the courtship dance.
And I thought to myself ..
hmmm.. perhaps they thought they got themselves a room ...
I took all these pictures with my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition.
I have no idea how they got in there but the only reason I could think of was - they maybe were doing their courtship flight and accidentally went in the strawberry greenhouse.
Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you.
I froze and turned my camera on again and managed to take this shot.
hmmm.. perhaps they thought they got themselves a room ...
Beautifull how you saved the life of the Butterfly. You do seem to know a lot about Nature. Like your informative posts, did not know that blinding thing about wingdust.
thank you!
well it would take a huge one to get you temporarily blinded (edited the article)
but the powder would hurt and could cause eye irritation.
It would actually cause more damage to the butterfly because they need that powder to keep their wings coated. They're actually more of "scales" but they looked more like powder..
When I was young, my cousins and I used to go butterfly hunting and I saw the technique from my grandfather. We never used a net, he said that the powder/scales on the butterflies' wings protect them and when a butterfly gets caught in a net - they tend to flap their wings too fast to release the dust to protect themselves just like what a tarantula does with his bristles. The butterfly loses too much dust and his wings would easily get torn and have holes - he would no longer be able to fly. How I held the male is the most ideal way of catching them. He wasn't able to flap his wings but the female did try to flap her hind wings and i got them on my fingers. I saw them again just this morning. Holiday in South Korea now so I could enjoy this beautiful summer extension.
ik zag dat je da poost over de steemfeest gelezen hebt - agenda net gechecked - mijn man geef een cursus die dagen behalve een dag - ik kan maar mischien - een dag naartoe gaan T.T
Did not know that about butterflies, Thanks for the info Ivy!
{NL} Steemfeest leuk idee, voor mij denk ik buiten bereik. Ben meestal niet zo van drukke mensenmassa's. Liever ergens incognito met enkele anderen. Maar het is aan de andere kant wel een uniek, eens in het leven, gebeuren. En in Nederland. Ik laat het even bezinken. :-)
Have a nice Holiday!
@oaldamster .. that was not the original message, I did the steps but I couldn't see my posts. I promoted both butterfly posts and I couldn't see them.
Then, I scrolled down and found them almost at the bottom so I spent more SD - one paid off and the other didn't.
Thank you for always being helpful! I've been away, a bit under the weather yesterday. Been too busy lately - yet still so many things to do. Prioritizing is a bit of a challenge these days.
You're welcome.
And take it Easy, one step at a time Ivy! Hope you feel better soon.
@oaldamster how does that promote button actually work?
over steemfeest mischien ga ik ook niet -
grote crowd maak me wel zorgen ik ben eigenlijk introvert
ik word duizellig en heel moe in een sociale vergadering
Ik hou wel van feestje, dancen en eten zolang dat het niet gepraat wordt - liever gaat schrijven..
.. wel trots dat het hier zal gebeuren
You press promotie and then you put the amount of SBD in. Conform it and it's done.
After that, as I see it, the same aspects are of influence. It is a gamble to put it blunt. No guarantee.
{NL} Het SteemFest vind ik een pracht idee.
Ieder heeft zo haar/ zijn uitdagingen. En natuurlijk ook talenten!
Het is wel iets unieks daar ben ik mij zeer bewust van. En ergens ben ik ook wel aan het denken hoe ik in ieder geval even een meet and greet kan doen.
Maar hoe dan ook, het zal een bijzonder gebeuren worden.
To all ten souls who upvoted this post, THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!
I appreciate it a great lot!
<3
@oaldamster doing fine now ...
thank you!